20. Afrikaans speaker : BOER. Boer definition, a South African of Dutch extraction. Hence, Afrikaans is a West Germanic language.

21. Creator of Q and M : IAN. Fleming (James Bond)

22. Chicks together : BROOD

23. Back muscle, familiarly : LAT. Latissimus dorsi muscle.

27. '50s flop : EDSEL. It seems Edsel is popular in the crosswords.

29. His #4 was retired by the Giants in 1948 : OTT. (Mel) "Master Melvin" was a right fielder for the New York Giants.

30. Social suffix : ITE. (socialite)

31. Sink below the horizon : SET. Time for "Cheers!"

33. Public hanging : ART. Oh, that kind of hanging, not a necktie party.

34. Pontiac muscle cars : GTO's

39. __ even keel : ON AN

40. Glasgow veto : NAE

41. Shelley's "To a Skylark," e.g. : ODE. Did you know Buick produced the Skylark in these model years: 1953–1954, 1961–1972 and 1975–1998? "Hail to thee, blithe spirit!" - Shelly

42. Reunion gp. : FAM. (family)

43. D.C. figure : POL

44. Inviting door sign : ENTER

53. Gardner of the silver screen : AVA

55. Binary digit : ONE

56. WWII British gun : STEN

57. __ Grey tea : EARL

61. "__ sow, so shall ..." : AS YE

62. Sword with a bell-shaped guard : EPEE

63. Upper body : TORSO

64. "So __ say" : THEY

65. River down under? : STYX. We're not talking Australia here.

Down:

1. Go on and on : BABBLE

2. Like an American in Paris : ABROAD

3. Some linens : SHEETS

4. Howl with laughter : ROAR

5. First animal shelter : ARK

6. Like super-popular YouTube clips : VIRAL

7. Goodnight girl of song : IRENE. The Weavers recorded version was a big hit.

8. Fluffy wrap : BOA

9. Terminate : END

10. Broken piece : SHARD

11. Title for Miss Mexico? : SENORITA

12. Deserted : RAN OUT ON

13. Big hammers : SLEDGES

18. Cartoonist Keane : BIL. The creator of “Family Circus” cartoons.

22. Lunch menu letters : BLT. or have 36D. Deli order : HAM ON RYE

24. Robert of "The Sopranos" : ILER

25. Like many gangster movies : GORY

26. When tots become terrible? : AT TWO

28. "Pardon the Interruption" channel : ESPN. "Pardon the Interruption" (abbreviated PTI, remember this, you may be tested later) is a sports show(duh!) that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels.

32. Opera hero, often : TENOR. Basso = bad guy.

33. Gobbled up : ATE

34. FBI guys : G-MEN

35. Being walked, say : ON A LEASH

37. After-shower powder : TALC

38. Pigged out (on) : OD'ed

39. Quirky : OFFBEAT

43. Ink holder : PEN

46. "Yeah, but ..." : "EVEN SO ..."

47. Hit-or-miss : RANDOM

49. __ Post, first pilot to fly solo around the world : WILEY

50. Sweetie pie : HONEY

51. Book end? : INDEX

52. "Life of Pi" director Ang : LEE

56. Sow's supper : SLOP

58. Four-time All-Pro Patriots receiver Welker : WES

59. Choose (to) : OPT

60. Numbered hwy. : RTE.

You didn't think I'd leave without a song, did you? Wonderland by Night(3:14) by Bert Kaempfert.

Argyle

Notes from C.C.:

1) Congratulations to our beautiful Melissa Bee for her new job! She started working for a tech firm last Monday.

Left to Right: Melissa's daughter, Melissa's mom Barbara B, Melissa

2) Happy 20th Birthday to Melissa's handsome son!

He was two years old in this picture. So cute!

3) Trip Payne, who was featured in the movie "Wordplay", has apuzzle extravaganza coming up. Please click here for more information. Trip has over 4,000 puzzles published in various newspapers and magazines, including the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, etc. He's also an expert solver.

Fun Tuesday from our Fearless Leader. I struggled a bit with some of the names (ILER, BENIN, BASRA), but they were all known to me and the perps were enough to jog my memory. Had no idea that PRETTY WOMEN had OH in the title, so that slowed me down for a few seconds as well.

Cute clue for "Ian." And it's always nice to see a Patriot in the grid...

Good morning, gang - a fun, albeit fast, offering from our Blog CCommander. No problems, but I had the same pause with ILLEGAL DRUGS that Hondo mentioned. I thought 'Title for Miss Mexico' was a clever way to clue this oft-used answer, SENORITA.

As always, great blog today, Mr. IronMan.

Slept away most of the weekend, but I felt better yesterday, finally. It was also the last day of the Warbirds show at the local airport, and I snagged one of the last rides on a B-17 Flying Fortress before the planes departed. Just a phenomenal experience. (I wanted to go up in the P-51 Mustang, but they wanted $3200 for a flight - unbelievable.)

A fairly brisk solution though, like Barry G., I didn't know ILER and briefly omitted the OH in PRETTY WOMAN. I also continue to get caught off guard by fills with multiple short words (e.g. RAN OUT ON). [6:29]

When I saw BASRA at 1A I feared I'd Rip-Van-Winkled away a couple of weekdays. But it turned out to be a quick solve. Thanks, C.C. As usual, I never got the theme until Argyle 'splained it.

I just got around to watching the two-hour American Experience on Henry Ford. He had no regard for Edsel, or anybody else for that matter. Sure glad he wasn't my dad.

In my early ute I lived right on Main Street in a small (1100 pop) Wisconsin town. One of my oldest memories is lying in bed on a hot summer night. The windows are open and Good Night, Irene is playing on the jukebox in the tavern across the street. The bar owner had been mustard-gassed during WWI, and every few minutes I'd hear him coughing up a storm -- even louder than the jukebox.

Thank you to Argyle and CC for todays write up and puzzle. Took a few minutes and reading the blog to connect the theme up with the clues. Otherwise it was not very hard. Knew Wes as my son is a big patriots fan not sure why since I am down in Eagles country. Enjoy your tuesday all we are expecting snow again.

pje @ 7:37 pm yesterday: "I watched the first half of the game last night, got bored, turned it off and read a book. Much more enjoyable." Smart thinking! I bet you had a great evening. What are you reading these days?

No real problems but noticed after I thought I'd finished that the first letter of 21A was missing. I never thought of James Bond and so filled in the 'I' simply because it was all that seemed logical there. I also didn't know WILEY, but perps got that one.

Thank you CC for a" wonderful " puzzle and Argyle for the usual fine write up. I did not know Benin, had to guess Iler (never saw the Sopranos). Favorite clue - creator of Q and M - Ian! I haven't seen Skyfall yet, but like Daniel Craig almost as much as Pierce Brosnan (SIGH!) My grandpa used to give me Wonder Bread with butter and then sprinkled sugar on top as a special treat if I was good ( didn't get it very often!) Have a great day, everyone.

Thank you C.C. for a very nice, yet somewhat challenging puzzle. I loved it. I didn't know some of the popular figures, and would get 'trashed' in a puzzle competition, but today, I guessed pretty OK. I didn't know 'Anne Hathaway' - but that was the name of Shakespeare's wife .... I put 'Emily' Post first, before Wiley came up. I did know Benin ( I have coins and stamps of it ), Basra, Styx and 'Oh Pretty Woman'.

'Illegal Drug' - a 'commonly controlled substance' ? 'Controlled' means, it is made available for legitimate use, under strict medical conditions.... which is precluded in the answer. Crack Cocaine has no legitimate use.

Argyle, thank you for your lovely commentary. Never would have got the unifier answer. BTW, your 'Epsom' map does not have anything labelled 'Epsom'. Does that mean the majority of the area is Epsom ? ( somehow I had Ascot before Epsom).

I found it funny that ABHOR is 2 lines above BOER.

I got 'Ian' - creator of Q and M - just through the perps - although I've read most of the James Bond books. True spies are very rarely sexy, but the combination apparently, is a real money maker.

Bill. G. when you have a chance , how about the answer to yesterdays - 6 pointed Jewish star-circles numbers problem. I knew the answers sum would be around 26, and that was a help, but I spent too many precious hours trying to solve it, but just couldn't swing it.

Morning all - Thank you C.C. for a great puzzle and Argyle for a great write-up.

Fairly smooth for me today. I am also not familiar with BENIN OR WILEY so there was a blank there. I miss entered AVE instead of AVA, and put down EPSON (like my printer lol), so I came out with RENDOM. Didn't see the now obvious RANDOM until reading Argyle's comments.

I also wanted to put in USSR, but held off and for a bit, then SSRS was evident.

I did associate Q and M with James Bond but drew a momentary blank on IAN, BUT VIRAL and IRENE fixed that.

After high school I had a friend with a GTO - cool car!

I also didn't know OH was in the PRETTY WOMAN title, but perps filled that in.

A couple other unknowns were filled in with perps, only the BEN-N and W-LEY were blank.

Dennis - The War Birds were here in Venice the end of January. Pretty awesome sight. Glad you're feeling better.

Nice puzzle today, C.C. Thanks for the BENIN map, Argyle Funny, I'd never noticed it before. ( people in BENIN probably think the same thing about North Dakota.)

I liked the crossing of ODED and ODE. Nice to see ANNE Hathaway with long hair. She can really rock the pixie cut, though.

Have you heard that if you watch the Youtube video of that Paul Harvey "Farmer" commercial , Ram trucks and Farm.com will donate to the FFA, up to a million dollars? Future Farmers of America is a high school organization that strives to groom leaders in agricultural industry. Lots of good kids in FFA around here.

Worked down and west through the center of the puzzle. That was fun. Zig Zagged my way down to the SW corner. Then I hit EARL for Earl Grey Tea. My favorite. I even carry it with me when I go to a restaurant. I learned doing crosswords that Earl Grey was the Prime Minister of England during the reign of King William IV. Early 1800's.

Splynter: Good to hear from you yesterday! (Used to do a lot of carpentry. After a while I started keeping a handsaw in the tool drawer in the bedroom where it is unlikely to fall into a hole in space.)

A very nice and just right Tuesday puzzle CC! Any puzzle with Roy O is a winner and I contend that the opening riffs of Pretty Woman is one of the most distinctive signatures in rock and roll! Nobody says “Oh”.

Musings-OMG, the time from The Super Bowl until the first game of MLB is the doldrums for this sports fan!-Wonderland By Night is reminiscent of the time when instrumentals were pop hits. Green Onions was my personal favorite.-I’d be helpless on a test naming African countries. The BOERS ABHORED British rule -My chicks were first a flock even though I heard MIL refer to the BROODer house many times-A guy told me I had nice LATS in the weight room the other day. Hmmm…-That sun is sinking later and later each day. Spring is nearing, SO THEY SAY.-All the sportscasters said that Joe Flacco’s main attribute is he stays ON AN even keel- El fallo México es una SENORITA muy hermosa-I wonder what brand of SLEDGE Gallagher uses. -Too many young children are having big problems because Dad RAN OUT ON them-Wonderful pix Melissa and congrats!-AM, I thought of Emily POST first too. At least she would have had used good manners in her flight ;-)-Qli, my friend told me that FFA is very big in his central California school-What fabulous movie had evidence in court that the ’64 Skylark had a regular differential?

Oh - RE: Wonder Bread. It's made by the Hostess Brand company. Not too long ago they were threatening to close and there was a run on people rushing to the store stocking up on Hostess Twinkies. But I believe they are still in business.

What fun to find a C.C. solo special today. No real trouble spots, but a number of pauses. I learn a lot from your geography lessons, Argyle ~ it's not my strong suit. I filled in all the place names - some with perps - but it's nice to see where they are ... and then try to remember for next time.

Once again I didn't have the theme figured out correctly. I was thinking that BREAD, DRUG, WOMAN, and CHILD were somehow related to Alice's tea party in WONDERLAND. Wow - major DUH! Not enough coffee? Yeah, that's it.

~ Somehow I always call the Derby site in 66A 'Epson' instead of EPSOM, as AnnieB mentioned.

On a related note, Dennis, How I met Your Mother had an all star cast last night. They had all these mini-interviews with Canadian celebs that talked about when they knew Robin. k d lang was one of theme. It was hilarious.

Enjoyed the puzzle today. Good offering C.C. Lot's of fun and clever cluing.

Wonderful puzzle from our fearless leader today! I sailed through it and never even saw some of the answers that stumped others. I probably would have been stumped at WILEY, ILER and BIL Keane if they were not already filled in by perps. Whew! Dodged those bullets. Loved seeing HAM ON RYE and BLT in the puzzle with BREAK BREAD...hmmm, I'm getting hungry!

-Dennis, what a fabulous jam session! When I look at Roy, I can imagine him being the Paul Potts or Susan Boyle of 40 years ago on something like the Britain Has Talent show. Simon Cowell and the snarky audience would see this odd looking man with thick glasses and dare him to be entertaining. Then he would blow their doors off with his incomparable voice!

CC, you are amazing. Most people who learn a second language, even after they are fluent, take years to master crossword puzzles. The puns, misdirections, and lesser known usages are difficult for many non native speakers, especailly in the early years. And here you are constructing WONDERful puzzles.

Congrats on the new job, MB. Nice family pics.

I have always found Wonder BREAD too soft, squishy and moist. The only way I can eat it is toasted. As children we had crusty Italian or French bread. I also like Russian rye. Give me a bread with some substance. I my younger days, I baked homemade bread. I think it was much tastier than the kind you can make in bread machines these days.

Poor EDSEL Ford. All he is remembered for is the model that flopped. The cross word constructors perpetuate his memory

As soon as I saw C.C.s name on the puzzle, I knew it would be a total delight. And so it was! It wasn't a speed run, though, and when it was over, I had the same problem as LaLaLinda in thinking it had to do with "Alice in WONDERLAND." Is there BREAD in the story (think so), DRUG (absolutely, remember the hookah), WOMAN (Red Queen), CHILD (Alice)? It's all there, but still didn't somehow make total sense. So, thank you, Argyle, for clearing everything up for me, and thank you C.C. for a terrific puzzle!

Liked your shout-out to Tinbeni's sunset cheers, Argyle. And what lovely photos of Mellissa and family!

Finally, Roy Orbison. Oh my, that has to be the most magical voice on the planet!

Easy puzzle today...in fact, easier than yesterdays. I didnt quite get the theme until I came here, though. I guessed something to do with WONDERLAND, but never saw that the word wonder went with the long answers. Originally thought EMILY for _Post, realized that wasnt right, then thought of Wilbur. No, he owned Mr.ED. Reached in the memory banks and came up with Wiley.Many people forget that Edsel Ford had exquisite taste, and was the designer of the original Lincoln Continental of the '40s.

Popular sites on the Internet, like The NY Times, The Huffington Post, L.A. Times, Washington Post etc., were blocked by Google's Chrome browser with warnings about possible malware, emanating from an Internet advertising company, Netseer.

Netseer, of Santa Clara, Calif., had suffered a hacking attack and had been infected, on its website, but now claims that the malware has been successfully cleaned off its site.

Thus the company claims that its current ads are not infected with any virus, so the other sites are also safe.

Did you know that the poet Marianne Moore was asked by Ford to come up with the name for their new model car in 1955-56? Her suggestions: "Resilient Bullet," "Mongoose Civique," Turcotingo," and "Utopian Turtle Top." The Ford executives went with "Edsel" instead, and look what happened!

Thanks Dow jones for the info about yesterday's hacking. I was wondering what was going on.

Great puzzle.. Chicks together was a great clue. I knew the answer because I was raised on a farm.

I live reading historical fiction. I am fascinated that they found Richard the third's bones. I just finished readngTower: An Epic History of the Tower of London by Nigel Jones. It was amazing how many people were beheaded by the civilized English.. This also ties in with Phillipa Gregory's great series on the war of the roses.

Wonderful to see the old blog format reappear today. Then it disappeared again the next time I checked the site.

I was a Wonder Bread kid until a visit to my rarely seen paternal grandfather Archie, who introduced me to toasted Roman Meal bread with fresh butter (we used post-war margarine at home). What a Wonderful treat ! Archie also had a Murphy Bed in his studio apartment, which was the Wonder of Wonders to me.

And FYI, Roy Orbison's Beyond Wonderful "A Black and White Night" concert (1987) can be seen in its entirety online at Netflix (Mr. O sadly died the next year at age 52).

Good morning everybody. I enjoyed the puzzle and, as usual, this kind of theme eluded me completely. It wasn't until I read Argyle's explanation that I understood it.

I agree with JzB about Les Mis. Being a fogy, it's not my kind of musical with its sad story and dreary songs. I would much prefer a revisit to The Music Man or Guys and Dolls or ...? Those oldies had songs with memorable melodies IMO.

Anony mouse, talking with you is never a waste of a post. Without trying to draw a diagram, see if this is enough information. As you said earlier, the sum of each row is 26. In your diagram of a hexagram or six-pointed star, I assume you have one point at the top and one at the bottom. Here are the numbers (in one answer) at the six points starting at the top and going clockwise. 5, 6, 3, 8, 10 and 4. I'll be happy to figure out a way to describe the remaining six numbers if you want me to.

Geez, after previewing, I've made about five corrections in this post so far. I knew I shoulda had a V-8 instead of the grapefruit for breakfast.

As a kid, I was perfectly OK with Wonderbread. As an adult, after getting a breadmaker, I realized what I had been missing. I have been lazy lately, I need to get out that breadmaker again.

Our local PBS station airs that Orbison Black and White concert at least once a year during beg-for-money season. And I watch it once a year... At least I've learned to DVR it so I can speed through the begging.

Congrats on the new job, MB. What sort of techie stuff will you be doing?

loingphHi all, I can't believe my second blog went through yesterday. I waited for a long time, then went away for awhile. When I came back to it it was still waiting to post. I turned it off finally and today when I looked, there it was. It was my computer and my DH finally did some cleaning up. Now it seems OK.

I remembered Wiley from some where in my past but wasn't sure how to spell it.I also spelled shard with a C.

61A-I never use the old King James Bible because I don't care for the 16th century language used. It's alson ot as acurate as modern translations.

Nice tuesday puzzle by C.C. and nice blogging by Argyle. Talented people who, like most professionals, make it seem so easy.

I would never say wonder child. I would say child prodigy or maybe even wunderkind, but never wonder child. Oh...wait...I would say Wonder child if referring to Aisha Morris or Keita Morris or Kwame Morris or Kailand Morris or Mumtaz Morris or Sophia Morris. And Mandla Kadjay Carl Stevland Morris is definitely a Wonder child.

Btw, Stevie Wonder was a child prodigy but not a Wonder child. He was a Judkins child and a Morris child but never a Wonder child. Clear?

Hi Y'all, Wonder Woman C.C. has come up with another fun one! Such a prolific constructor!

Great comments, Argyle! I, too, failed to get the theme put together right, but appreciated it.

27D Parma cheese is featured in John Grisham's great book "Playing for Pizza".

When I worked at a Buick dealership, we sold a used Skylark to a family for the kids to drive. Shortly thereafter, the oldest son drove all over the grassy city park knocking down all the newly planted little trees. One wag said, "He should have known that skylark was too big to perch in those little trees." He wasn't drunk, just having "fun".

Knew Wylie, but was unsure how to spell him.

Don't you remember the part, "Oh, oh, oh, Pretty Woman?" I watch the Roy Orbison tribute on PBS annually too. A fabulous classic. Another favorite is a duet by Roy with k.d. lang.

Good late afternoon to all. Great puzzle, CC, and great expo, Argyle. I did not get the theme until reading the blog.

I have a daughter-in-law from Lithunia. She was 16 when they broke away from Soviet rule. She has very interesting stories to tell. She was forced to take Russian from first grade on, but did get to add English in 5th grade. Her parents are fluent also in German and Polish, but they all speak Lithuanian now.

I have had several former students serve in Basra. Sometimes safe area, usually not.

I use my bread machine to make dough. It does the 'hard' work. Then I take it out, let it raise and bake it in my oven. I think it is better than some of my 'totally from scratch' bread.

DA was on at the same time as the football game. I don't have a recorder, so chose to watch DA.

CC, I usually read the blog on my iPad. Today I used my desktop computer. Often video links don't work on the iPad. After the comments, I read these later posts back on my iPad.

The format changed a couple weeks ago. One had a choice of web or mobile version, but the mobile was always the default. The web version looks just like the computer version. As I checked it now, the default is the web version and there is no option to change it. So, it is back to the format I prefer.

Man, I just had to get up and move it to "Boogie Wonderland". Gasp, pant! Those were some awesome tassels a couple of those guys were sporting with those flashy costumes. Brightened my day, thanks! Now I'll go up the blog and play some of the other offerings.

Congratulations to C.C. !!!!!!Not an easy one for me today, but finally got it except cHARD .Don't know what I was thinking. TTP Those Google searches were interesting.ZERG RUSH is another. Thanks for hipping us to Google Easter eggs. Tried to find a list, but some don't work. "Gravity" is another

Hola Everyone, Thanks C.C. for another fun puzzle and to Argyle for the writeup. Both super efforts.

Some of the clues were nice for a change. For example, Ian, Styx, and Ott. Art for public hanging was exceptionally clever.

I didn't get the theme, though, until I read Argyle's writeup.

Wiley was dredged up from way down in my grey matter. It is amazing how some things come to light after so many years, and others just slide right out into space never to be recaptured.

I heard from Dodo today. She has had problems with her PC, but also has been in the hospital. Coumadin caused a bleed, but she is home now and recovering. She has been doing the crossword everyday, and says hello

Aren't they fun ? There are beau coup, although a number of them are either disabled or are seasonal. Hanukkah, Festivus, Christmas, let it snow...

They have some fun in Maps as well, such as if you were to ask directions from Paris to New York, or if you ask for walking directions from Japan to China. I I haven't tried any of those lately. I've seen lists here and there, but haven't found one that lists them all.

Shows that Google has some fun and lets their teams have some fun beyond the Google doodles.

Search Hidden Eggs and you'll find other gems. There was a flight simulator hidden in someone's product. And you can find the hidden extras in the games that the kids like to play.

Microsoft has had them hidden in their spreadsheet, powerpoint and even in their Pinball game that comes standard with Windows.

Fun stuff.

Melissa, BTW, I missed it earlier. Congratulations to you, and Happy Birthday to your son !

Congratulations on your new job, Melissa B. Also, thanks for sharing your family pictures. Such a handsome group.

Fermatprime, good to hear from you today. Don't let anons get to you. They don't deserve the attention.

Killy, You might enjoy reading "Elizabeth of Wydville", The Slandered Queen by Arlene Okelund. Okelund is a professor of English at San Jose State University. I met the author at a book review a couple of years ago and enjoyed her book. You will have the background to enjoy reading yet another twist in the history of one of England's bloodiest times.

Desper-otto:What was the name of that small town?In the 90's I had a friend in Owen, WI, half of the Owen-Withee metroplex, population about a thousand. It is 50 miles north of Eau Claire. The Irish and I went up there for a week and milked his cows to give his family a vacation. We soon discovered that this small town had about 10 bars. It was a fun week.

pje - I also enjoy thriller/mysteries. Usually Michael Connelly, Lee Child, David Baldacci (one of my favorites of his is Last Man Standing) Greg Iles, Vince Flynn, and such. I’m now reading One Rough Man by Brad Taylor. (suggestion by Dennis) I’ve read L.S. in the past but found these other authors to hold my interest more. I’m always looking for new authors to read.

Bill G. Thank you for the solution of Hexagram circles puzzle. My problem was, I thought that there was an easy, 'elegant' solution. I thought maybe, that the outer apexes had the largest numbers, in descending order - or the smallest numbers in ascending order... and to work the inner circles, later. However, as your answer shows, it is a combination of the two ranges, which makes it somewhat more difficult.

The answer could be described as 5, 6, 3, 8, 10 4. for the 'outies' apexes.

and 7, 11, 1, 12, 2, 9 for the 'innies' apexes.

as someone said, " To every complex problem, there will appear to be a simple, optimal, elegant solution - which is bound to be wrong" (lol).

The problem and the drawing seems to jiggle my memory of a hexagram, made out of large, stuck-together machine screw nuts, something you can easily put together, make at home with about 3 dozen screw nuts, half inch diam., and some silicone or with a hot HDPE plastic glue gun.

This is probably from a book, either by Martin Gardner or Jerry Slocum and Botermans.You may also check out 'The Cube' ( The Ultimate Solution ) by 5 Fantastic authors - Erno Rubik, Jerry Slocum, Wei-Hwa Huang etc. Check it out at Amazon.com

Abejo.. So many memories... my uncle was also stationed in England during WWll and flew many many missions. At one time I knew how many... I no longer remember. I know that he flew lead plane and that he flew the B-17 and the B-24. I was quite young but I remember my grandmother pinning his silver wings on the lapels of my coats.